Former Bishop Richard Cheetham, with a background in physics and theology, argues for a harmonious relationship between science and faith. Discover how churches can engage with scientific advancements to enrich their ministry.

Most church leaders, inevitably, come from a background in the humanities. If not simply theology alone, pastors and ministers often have been educated in things like literature, history, law and the like before they entered ministry. But not all. 

Finding faith in science

Richard Cheetham, who retired as a bishop in the Church of England in 2022, first found a love for science as a teenager, just as he was embracing a living faith in Jesus. As he wrestled with complex physics and math, exposing the building blocks of the universe, an “obvious question” was how to relate this new understanding of the world with his nascent faith, he said. 

Later, he studied philosophy and physics at the University of Oxford so he could continue to explore in the lab and in the library at the same time, before going on to teach science at secondary school. His career led eventually to ordination into the Church of England as first a priest and then bishop, and decades later he ended up on sabbatical studying at a seminary in California. He gravitated towards a course on theology and the natural sciences, but what he learned there surprised him… (Register to read the rest of the article)